Bubba Watson pumps his fist after making a birdie on 18. Watson won the 2014 Northern Trust Open with a score of 15 under par. Pacific Palisades, CA. February 13, 2014 (Photo by John McCoy / Los Angeles Daily News)

Northern Trust Open

PACIFIC PALISADES — One of the ways to master Riviera Country Club, according to Bubba Watson, is just close your eyes to as much negativity as possible and swing away.

Yet the 2012 Masters champion, who hadn’t had a PGA victory since that green-jacket moment, was in a hot mess when he started the Northern Trust Open way back on Thursday morning — a couple of nasty double-bogeys on two of his first three holes.

Capping off a victory Sunday afternoon with a birdie putt on the 18th green positively came out of left field for the left-hander.

To complete the final two rounds bogey-free with matching 7-under-par 64s, Watson flipped it from a four-shot deficit and sixth-place tie after round three to squashing his tour-triumph drought with a two-stroke celebration.

“I never got down, never felt down that I hadn’t won but just kept plugging along and somehow it fell into my lap today,” Watson said, sitting next to the silver trophy and accepting a check for more than $1.2 million for carding a 15-under 269.

First-round leader Dustin Johnson made a late charge with a 5-under 66 on Sunday. But he finished about 20 minutes before Watson, in the next-to-last group with Pepperdine grad Jason Allred and Brian Harman. Each of them finished at 12-under 272 and three back.

Another former Masters champ, Charl Schwartzel, was alone in fifth at 11-under 271. Third-round leader William McGirt couldn’t deal with the tougher pin placements, shot a 2-over 73 and was with a group with three other lesser-known tour players at 10-under 270, but at least $216,000 richer.

The momentum shifted on the leaderboard when Watson lofted a 10-foot pitch out of No. 6 green-side trap — not the one in the middle of the green. The birdie-2 tied him for the lead at 12-under with McGirt. Moments later, Harman also birdied the sixth with a 17-foot putt to make it three at the top. And not long after that, Schwartzel made it a four-way tie when he birdied No. 8 two groups ahead of them.

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That sixth hole also marked a momentary meltdown for Watson. He took out a 9-iron for the 169-yard hole and tried to draw it to “give it a little bit more distance,” he later explained.

Instead, the ball flew into the trap left of the green. Watson repeatedly shouted “wrong club” and kicked at it after he dropped it.

“The cut 8-iron would have been better,” Watson explained after the round.

But the sand-save sanded down all the rough edges.

“We were looking at going off the back mound there, the hill, and let it just roll back to the hole,” he said. “I was thinking, at worst, let’s make a four and get out of here and go to the next hole.

“And then when it goes in, you’re like, well, let’s go to the next hole. It keeps the momentum alive.”

Watson’s birdie putt at the eighth hole gave him the lead by himself at 13-under. A par at the ninth, after having to hit his second shot out near a puddle of beer from the right fairway rough and then getting into it with a fan who caused him to stop his backswing, meant he played the front nine in 30.

Unless he really imploded from there, Watson wasn’t going to be caught. Even when he got stuck behind Bogey’s Tree on No. 12, Watson maneuvered around it just fine. A fairway trap on the 15th was just a minor inconvenience.

When Johnson walked off the 18th green just one shot back of the lead, destined to finish second for the second week in a row on the tour, Watson was in the middle of the 17th fairway watching his second shot land in a green-side bunker. He punched out again, made two putts, and took on the 18th with a champions-like strut, even though he knew nothing was finished.

“I was breathing real hard walking up the hill to the fairway and I had to catch myself and get back into the mindset of playing golf,” Watson said.

Ranked first in driving distance for the tournament at 304 yards, Watson actually pulled back on a 315-yard drive to the middle of the fairway on 18 that left him 166 yards to the green. The wedge in gave him a 13-foot putt, which he ended any drama by making for his seventh birdie of the round.

Watson then caught up to his wife, Angie, and carried his almost-2-year-old adopted son, Caleb, up the stairs to the clubhouse to wait for the final group to finish and soak in the victory. When he won the Masters in April, 2012, neither were there because the adoption had just taken place.

“It doesn’t feel like two years (since winning the Masters),” Watson said, “because it seems like yesterday when he couldn’t walk and now he’s running and eating chocolate. ... It’s crazy that it’s coming up on two years.”

During that span, Watson failed to win in 37 tour events, and 41 world wide. Two weeks ago, he blew a lead in Scottsdale and lost on the final hole to Kevin Stadler.

In last year’s Northern Trust Open, Watson shot a 77-71 and missed the cut.

Now, he’s the third left-hander to win it at Riviera, after Mike Weir and Phil Mickelson — both of whom eventually won it in back-to-back years.

“You never know when your last win is going to be — my last win could have been the Masters, which would have been a great way to go out,” Watson joked. “But winning here is nice. You can go to the bathroom over there (at Riviera) at 6 and see the old photos of the old polo grounds here, all that history. It’s incredible for me to be part of this now.”

Maybe on his next trip to that restroom after a fit of hysterics, he can remind himself of his historic connection.